The first 25+ minutes of tonight’s final Daily Show with Jon Stewart featured the full gallery of correspondents during Stewart’s 16 years at the show’s helm, many of whom graduated from the program to become stars in their own right. But no star shone brighter than Stephen Colbert, whose celebration of Stewart’s virtues brought the departing host to tears, and was an epic (and apparently unscripted) tour de force of verbal prose.

Update: Here’s a teary Stewart saying his final goodbyes after an encore-y “Born To Run.”